The Guest List by Lucy Foley

 

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

This is DEFINITELY  one to listen to!!

When I started a part time job about a year ago, I delved into listening to podcasts (about books, a'course) and more audiobooks.  I have never really been on the page of calling listening to books "reading." I just had a hard time moving away from my beloved hardbacks.  I don't have a problem reading on my Kindle, I just like BOOKS.  And reading with my EYES.

However.

Ok, fine, now I will listen all the time because I am in the car for over an hour on the days I drive to work.  This means I can listen to a whole book in less than two weeks (well, not The Huntress but that was worth the renewal!!).  And I have learned to be that person that can toggle back and forth between an audio book and a book.  I have always been a monogamous reader mainly because I would get the storylines twisted and mixed up.  But maybe I have grown.  Huh.

So, anyway, I have said on other reviews that the audio book was "ok" and wondered if the experience would have been better for me if I had actually read the book.  I do not worry about that here, so much so that I recommended to my Beloved Bookworms Book club that has been meeting for over 15 years now that we LISTEN to this book.  And, for the first time, we actually did!

Here is why:  this story of a wedding celebration gone wrong is told from the perspective of six different narrators.  I think reading the physical book, and putting it down and picking it up again in the middle of a chapter, would have become confusing as to who was telling the story at the time.  But the audio version presents different actors who perform the different perspectives with such identifying voices and accents for this American that you know instantly who you are listening too.  Olivia, the bridesmaid, has such a small, damaged, tentative voice that you just want to pick her up and hug her.  Hannah, the Plus-One, has a brilliant Manchester accent, so different from the posh London speak of the Bride.  Johnno, as the Best Man, just comes across as pathetic, and the Groom lends his rising TV star fame a lot of swagger.  Aiofe, the wedding planner, brings in the Irish lilt and the bonus is you learn how to pronounce that name (say:  A-fah with a long A sound).  

Set on a remote Irish Island, two relatively famous people are getting married, and their nearest and dearest and most messed up-est loved ones are coming.  Everyone seems to have secrets and backstories and oh what a tangled web we weave. It is a bit of a slow build, maybe too slow. It all leads up to a tragic event.  Or is it justice delayed? Too much time spent with the ushers looking for said event's results and a little TOO tangled of a web (yeah, this is fiction, but come on!), but still a really good listen and only about 10 hours, so a relatively shorter one. A great Whodunit that just might surprise you in the end. Definitely worth a listen!

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island 

By Colleen Oakley

First of all, what a fun cover.  I am a sucker for fun, meaningful covers, and this one is a beaut.

I listened to this one, and am always curious after the fact how that experience would have been different had I actually read the page.  I would not say this is a great audiobook, but it was short and I needed something to listen to in the car.  So, I would probably say, read this one; it is not necessarily a great one for audio time (except it was short!).

But, as for the story - I enjoyed this one and how the truth unfolded.  A nice cozy mystery/romance, with a tragic loss, a curious journalist, and a community full of fun characters that will do anything to protect their own.  Even crazy stuff. 

A small island community lives simply and knows everyone.  When a young woman who grew up there and married her high school sweetheart experiences a tragic and mysterious loss, the community builds her up and keeps her afloat (ooops, sorry, too soon??) by pretending her husband is still alive.  Yes, they talk right to the empty space beside her.  When a city boy comes to report on the annual festival, he hears whispers of another, bigger story that he should be following, and the true investigation begins. 

Sounds light and airy as a shortcake, right?  Well, don't put away the pound cake yet because underneath all this icing is a deeper attempt to talk about mental health and grieving.  I think the author does a good job of balancing the two, and it all sorts itself out in the end in a most satisfying way, without the bow-wrapped happy ending you might expect, but a good ending none the less.  I like a happy ending as my book club well knows, but this one was more content, more realistic, and left a bit of hope too.  A fun read inside that fun cover!!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

I. Loved. It.

I read this one so fast I have no idea what is happening in the world right now.  I could not put it down.  What a fascinating format - I loved the titles of each section, giving a descriptive of each husband of Hollywood bombshell (part Marilyn Monroe, part Elizabeth Taylor) Evelyn Hugo.  I loved the flashbacks and the parallels in Monique's marriage and Evelyn's.  I loved Evelyn's chutzpah and stories and struggles and TRUTH.  The writing flowed and builds up to a big reveal that we don't really get to sit with for very long when another bombshell (ahem) hits - which if you don't see coming you haven't read it closely enough, sorry.

World famous Evelyn Hugo reaches out to an unknown journalist with the opportunity of a lifetime - to write her biography, no holds barred, no questions unanswered, but on Evelyn's own time and in all the harsh light of what really happened and why.  She is insistent that everything be included and that people understand she is not regretful, she had her reasons.  Monique cannot figure out why Evelyn has picked HER, but she takes the deal, knowing it will make her famous and she can finally be the writer she has always dreamed of being.  

But she will learn that fame, as Evelyn has learned, can come at a devastating price.

And so can full understanding.

There is so much in this book.  The Emerald Green dresses, the friendships, the drama, the Hollywood inside stories, the wheeling and dealing, the marriages of course, the fakeness and acting and misleading and oh, the PRESS!!!!  Loved the little snippets from the rag pages of early Hollywood, it made me think of how the press can make or break a career based on what they see, or what they want to see.  So much manipulation, both to stay famous and to stay sympathetic.  Evelyn schemes her way to fame, and schemes her way to stay there, and is unapologetic about her methods.  She'd do it all again, because everything she did, she did for those she loved.  And when Evelyn loves, she loves ALL THE WAY.

I read this over a weekend and I know I am a bit late to the party, but I loved this story.  I sort of felt like Monique could have stayed put at the end if you know what I mean, not to change anything but just to be there.  Her respect for, admiration of, and shock at Evelyn's actions lead to a strange relationship.  But, I don't think it could have ended any other way.

Evelyn wouldn't have it.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

 

I was not really taken in by the flap description of this one - a woman's husband mysteriously disappears and leaves her a note to protect his daughter. And that is all. Nothing else about what is happening.

But -

The story unfolded a whole lot differently than I expected. This book was recommended by Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy fame, and I thought ok, I'll give it a whirl. I got SO MUCH MORE out of this book than I thought! There were some parts where I thought Hannah (the wife) was way out of her depth and the things she did and risked and said on her journey to the truth about her relatively new husband seemed unrealistic.  She chases him down to find out why he ran and from whom - really.  She starts to see a past she did not know about, and wonders how to tell the daughter he asked her to protect.  From what exactly?  She doesn't know, and she feels blindsided.  However, when you realize what the story is really about, the deepest part of the story in finding who you are, who you can be, and who you really love, and what you would do and not do for those you do love - THAT is when it really got me. A fantastic ending that you may or may not see coming, and a quick read - mainly because you can't put it down. Brava, Hannah, and Brava, Laura Dave!

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved books.  She loved to read about impossible adventures and horses and magic and love.  Her brother was disgusted with her because she would never play with him, preferring her books to games and outdoors.  She read big books and little books and wizard books and time travel books and vampire books, but most of all she loved books about witches.  One day she found a book about three sisters who were inseparable, then split asunder by a big bad evil, and then pulled back together only to face the biggest baddest evil of the world.  The sisters had a grandmother they loved who loved them and sang to them and prepared them for the world. This preparation would be needed when they faced the biggest baddest evil of the world - together.  They had some help, they had some trouble, they had some nightmares, and they found love.  But most of all, they found themselves.

Alix Harrow is my hero.

No, wait, she is my HEROINE!!!!

What a wonderful read - this is my kind of book.  I enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January, but this one is so much more than a sophomore triumph.  So many layers and references and nuances and themes, I don't know how to begin a review!  I can't really imagine this book not being for everyone, but it IS about magic and souls and ancient stories, and sisters and causes and standing up for self.  A fairy tale told about women's rights and being true to who you are and loving who you love and defeating evil, at all costs, because you discover that you can love something, or someone, more than yourself.

The language and flow Harrow uses in this book just literally sang to me as a reader, and I loved her bits of humor and winks and so many I probably missed.  I can't say too much because it would spoil your own discovery.  But I will say this book tackles some deep themes too - women's suffrage (it is set in 1893) and the right to love who you love and good parenting and generational repetition and the burning of innocent women who just wanted a life less oppressing.  A story about betrayal and truth and doing the right thing.  About a librarian who could have "expired from sheer glee" when gazing upon row after row of BOOKS!  (I mean, duh.)

I didn't want it to end.  I literally left the last two pages open for two days before finally finishing it.  I NEVER do that.  And then, I read the acknowledgments.  (I ALWAYS read the acknowledgments!!)  Do not miss the acknowledgments in this book.  Fabulous.

What a fun ride.  Literally. ;-)  Can't wait for her next book!!!

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

 

This one took me a while to get into, and to finish.  A very slow read, almost a dream-like state.  But once I realized this novel is based on a true story, a real house, and a woman who grieved for those who had no one, this book began to come alive.  (Check out the author's note at the end.)

Carrie McGavock is the wife of a Tennessee farmer whose house becomes requisitioned as a hospital after the Battle of Franklin, a massacre of the Civil War in 1824.  Thousands were killed, and hundreds died in the days that followed.  Carrie's story - including her own previous tragedies - is so unusual that she became famous as the Widow of the South - she who mothered and cared for and buried, and then reburied, so many boys, for whom she continued to wear her favorite Black attire her entire life.  She recorded all their names and maintained a cemetery on her property to honor those boys. Hicks throws in a romance and includes the real person Mariah, a black woman who was given to Carrie as a slave when they were children and who is in fact Carrie's best and long serving friend, even after emancipation. As a history buff and a Southerner, this story really took me in.  Another very different angle from which to study a time in our nation's history that we overlook.  What happens AFTER the big events in the history books?  How do people carry on?  How much does life in a small Tennessee town change after they have seen and witnessed what war can bring, what war can DO to a man?  Or, to a woman?

Stick with it - the story has a great full circle at the end. Robert Hicks has done meticulous research and himself works with the Carnton House where these event occurred.  I, like him, hope Carrie's letters from and to the families of those killed do surface one day.  Fascinating.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

WOW.

THIS is a love letter to New York City. 

In her acknowledgements, the author writes that this "is my homage to the city. Hope I got it right."

Damn straight, she did.

Now, I have been to the city several times but in no way am I a New Yorker. I like New York for a weekend, but I don't understand New York. Jemisin, however, she got it going ON for NYC. I am sure there are so many references and tongue in cheek lines that I missed about the personality of New York and all of the boroughs. A real New Yorker will get it, and maybe disagree with some of the stereotypes she irresistably uses here to portray her characters, but give her grace.

What Jemisin has accomplished here is a multi-layered universe; a world we recognize and can't comprehend; and a loyalty/determination/protectiveness that bring all involved to the brink - of what, they cannot even fathom.

Ok, enough mumbo jumbo. This is the story of survival, of teamwork, of Trust and the suspension of belief. New York has been born, in the form of a young graffiti artist. He does not believe or understand what is happening to him, even with his older, wiser guide to teach him how to be "born." And of course, danger lurks. The Enemy wants to crush NYC and all nearby. How can one boy stop her?

Oh, but New York is so much more than one. The boroughs come into awareness and struggle to save themselves and New York. Each is very different and somewhat representative of the borough where they live - a Native American gay woman who runs an Art Gallery in the Bronx, tough as sheeee-yit and with some of the best one liners and put downs, as you'd expect. Brooklyn is a councilwoman with a wild past. Queens is an immigrant who is the hope of her family. Manhattan has forgotten his name. And isn't there a fifth borough?

Meh.

Oh yeah, Staten Island. Whatever.

I loved everything about this novel.  The premise, the characters, the characterization, the super snappy dialogue, the descriptions of driving in New York, of living in New York, and mostly, of LOVING New York.  

Maybe we needed a story where we work together against a common enemy right now.  Maybe we needed to be reminded that we are better together.  Maybe this is just so good because there is SO much to talk about (Aislyn and her mom, Aislyn and her Dad, Bronca and Veneta's relationship, Manny's memories, Brooklyn's fight song, dancing, Hong Kong, white fronds and other white things, finding your inner power, the Use of Capitalization, and what the hell is Manhattan's name anyway??).

Even if you think this "genre" is not for you, I encourage you to give this one a go.  The Prologue is very confusing but made SO much more sense when I went back and reread it after I finished.  Chapter One will have you hooked.  Enjoy the ride.

Welcome to the party, indeed.  (a great last line.......!)

Oh, and PS, this is the first in a trilogy, so don't think it ALL ended pretty.......